Race Culture (1910)

AUTHOR: Dodds, Susanna Way

SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen)

In this book, Dodds advocates for veg*ism and dress reform for health reasons. In the “Preface,” she remarks that “[t]he one thing we need above all other, is physical regeneration” (iii). This is the topic to which Race Culture is dedicated: “not only to teach women the secret of health and happiness, but to point out how an enlightened motherhood will improve the race” (iv). Dodds' focus is almost exclusively on women's “physical vigor” rather than their “intellectual and moral worth” (iv). The book touches on questions of pregnancy, childbirth, abortion, and early childhood. With respect to the latter, the discussion concerns children's diseases, illnesses, and ailments, from a sore throat to diarrhea, from mumps to scarlet fever, from diphtheria to measles, and methods of prevention or treatment in accordance with the tenets of hygeio-therapy. In this context, several sections touch on the question of nutrition and diet and Dodds generally advocates for a veg*n diet.

For infants, depending on their age and constitution, Dodds advises mother's milk or pure (sterilized or pasteurized) cow's milk if the former is not available, gruel, and mild fruit juices or “good stewed fruit properly cooked and strained” (190). During and after weaning, Dodds recommends “bread and milk; oatmeal porridge and milk; graham mush and milk; soft-boiled rice and milk” (197). For bread, she insists on Graham bread whenever possible. Once the teeth are well-developed, she suggests the addition of potatoes and, “once in while,” a soft-boiled egg. “But,” she continues, “such articles as meat, butter, coarse vegetables, pastries, preserves and sweetmeats, will tend to derange the stomach, and make the child sick. Still worse are fried potatoes (fried anything), rich puddings and desserts, very sweet foods, or highly seasoned dishes. ... also pickles, spices, and condiments; they are the forerunners of dyspepsia. Tea, coffee, cocoa, and the like, are among the forbidden things” (198-199).

Generally, Dodds writes, “[i]f our children were fed almost exclusively on fruits, cereals (including rice), these being thoroughly cooked, with a limited supply of nuts, fresh eggs, and other wholesome articles of diet, instead of partaking so largely of meats, fried foods, pastries, and dishes that are highly seasoned, good results would surely follow” (207). She singles out for criticism the use of too much sugar, stimulants (including meat), and condiments:

[m]eat, meat dishes, rich gravies, sauces, catsups, pickles, anything that tickles the palate, will pave the way for stronger stimulants, and even for tobacco. It has been truly said that topers [excessive consumers of alcohol] as a class are tobacco users, and both are meat eaters. As a rule, they like their meats and other dishes well seasoned; plenty of pepper, salt, hot sauces, etc. Many a boy who has fallen a victim to drink, first had his appetite perverted at his mothers's [sic] table (208).

Unfortunately, Dodds maintains, we subsist on “vile concoctions” as “[t]he average cook-book is a collection of recipes, many of which give directions how to spoil foods, rather than to prepare them in ways that are conducive to health” (346).

In an appendix, Dodds provides particular dietetic measures for certain illnesses and diseases (e.g., fevers, chronic diseases, etc.; 445-465). All her dietary suggestions are essentially veg*n and emphasize plainness, simplicity, purity, and quality. Dodds also promotes dress reform for health reasons.